The ongoing legal brawl between the SEC and Ripple has seen another major development. A U.S. federal judge recently rejected the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) bid to appeal its momentous loss against the blockchain payments company.
As part of the order, the judge raised the chance of the two parties reaching a settlement before the suit goes to trial next year.
Ripple-SEC Settlement Possible Before Trial
In a brief ruling Tuesday, Judge Analisa Torres denied the SEC’s plan to file an interlocutory appeal against Ripple. Torres — who ruled in July that Ripple’s XRP token is not necessarily a security on its face — said that the agency failed to show in its appeal that the judgment was sufficiently inaccurate or problematic.
With the motion for appeal dismissed, the case will either go to trial or be settled. The legal teams for both Ripple and SEC are expected to appear for a final pretrial conference on April 16, 2024. Judge Torres ordered both parties to meet for at least an hour to discuss possible settlement prior to this last pretrial conference in an effort to avoid protracted litigation.
Despite the general consensus that Torres’ latest decision is largely bullish for Ripple, the SEC could still try to appeal the overall case once the trial concludes.
Spark Of Hope For XRPArmy
However, pro-XRP lawyer John E. Deaton suggested last month that Ripple and SEC could still settle this year on one condition: that Judge Failla allows Coinbase’s motion to dismiss the SEC’s case against it.
Another prominent figure in the crypto community, Zach Rector, also stated that the settlement is highly likely to happen before the case even goes to trial because the SEC won’t want Ripple to call witnesses such as the Ethereum ICO Insider Steven Nerayoff. This is after Nerayoff recently revealed how Ethereum got special treatment during its Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
It’s worth noting that there’s no guarantee that Ripple and SEC will reach a settlement, nor are they mandated to do so during the settlement conference.
$3 Coming Soon?
From the latest legal developments, it appears that the SEC’s avenues to appeal are narrowing.
A Ripple-SEC settlement could bring much-needed clarity to XRP’s legal standing. With clear-cut regulations in place, confidence in XRP could skyrocket, attracting new retail and institutional investors who have been standing on the sidelines.
Without legal burdens, Ripple could unlock new opportunities for XRP to be broadly adopted as a ground-breaking solution for international settlements, which would subsequently pave the way for a significant price rally to the elusive $3 mark and beyond.
